{review} a mixed batch

There are a few books I've read which don't really run to a full review. The sort of 'yes, I'd probably read the next one in the series eventually' or 'hmmm. I enjoyed it but it's not going to stick in my mind...' or 'everyone else's read that ages ago and what can I add?'. That sort of thing.

For example, Lauren Willig's The Secret History of the Pink Carnation (2005) was an amusing take on historical fiction slash chick lit slash mystery. There are many more in the series and I'll probably read another one at the very least. Willig favours the parallel narrative. Her modern day historian's search for the identity of an elusive contemporary of the Scarlet Pimpernel encases an inner narrative of the story of a feisty young woman's search for adventure and love in Revolutionary Paris. So strong was the internal narrative (in a Georgette Heyer fashion) that I sometimes thought that the more chick-lit type external narrative could have been ditched. It's an interesting combination and I'm probably not going to be able to resist finding out what comes next.

Imogen Robertson's Instruments of Darkness (2009) is the first in a series as well and I'll definitely be reading the second one. Who is the dead man in the woods? Is he the missing heir to the nearby manor house? What secret is the anatomist Gabriel Crowther hiding from the strong-minded, independent heroine? This is a straightforward historical crime novel with another feisty heroine determined to demonstrate that her intellect is by no means inferior to that of a man. I sometimes thought, 'too feisty for 1780', but, hey, it's fiction. There's a lot of good work in the setting of this book, with various historical borrowings used to set the scenes. I thought her dark, dirty and dangerous London was particularly well drawn.

I'd heard good things about Rosy Thornton's The Tapestry of Love (2010) - but it didn't really grab me. It was a 'nice' book: lovely setting in the Cévannes, but a bit plotless, slow and romantic for me. Good writing with a fine eye for details of everyday life. Apart from loving France, I was clearly the wrong audience. One bit did grab me: the heroine was able to sort of 'free-hand' her tapestries without any plan except a picture in her head of what it should look like. I'm in awe.

More historical fiction: Katharine McMahon The Rose of Sebastopol (2007). Such a disappointment - I didn't enjoy it at all. I kept wanting to smack the hero(es), the heroine(s), etc. Where's a well-timed cannon shot when you need one? Even the decent historical setting couldn't win back my love. And I found a typo... I'd been expecting something as good as The Crimson Rooms. Now I'm not sure I want to check out the sequel to that. Dear oh dear. I'm not sure I like historical fiction, actually (at least at this point!). ;-)

"She was my first, and last". I'll end on a positive note: Daphne du Maurier's My Cousin Rachel (1951). That's how to do historical mystery/fiction. It is 100% perfect and if I can't get the word "frape" into conversation this week I shan't let myself read any more du Maurier although I crave a return to Rebecca. I also adored the short stories in Don't Look Now (so spooky). I think I'll add Justine Picardie's Daphne to the TBR.

{review} two lady detectives

Nicola Upson An Expert in Murder (2008)

Katharine McMahon The Crimson Rooms (2009)

An Expert in Murder: great concept; not convinced about the follow-through. Gorgeous cover. Upson's premise – a series of detective novels with the real life detective novel writer Josephine Tey (aka Gordon Daviot aka Elizabeth Mackintosh) as protagonist – is a very appealing one. And it taps into a current interest in the 1930s. And the settings are nicely done: lots of foggy London-ness and neat use of other contemporary figures more or less disguised by pseudonyms. The story revolves around the cast and crew of the play 'Richard of Bordeaux', written by Mackintosh/Tey (as Gordon Daviot). Incidentally, the 'real' play made a star of John Gielgud. 

What mystery lies in Josephine Tey's past that has made her the target of a ruthless killer? Hopefully the familiar tortured cop figure (though he is not Alan Grant) with a soft spot for Tey will be able to solve the puzzle before Tey joins the growing body count. What I wondered about was why Tey? This is the sort of book that, say, an Agatha Christie would have pulled off with a totally believable yet entirely fictional author, and without mussing a hair. It's almost lazy to use Tey - and Upson is clearly not a lazy writer: she writes very well indeed and a lot of work has gone into recreating the appropriate background. 

In sum: I'm not panning the book by any means. I'm just concerned that it didn't grab me and it should have grabbed me because I'm a huge Tey fan. There was little flavour of her carefully contained, almost bland style here - maybe that threw me? Imagining what it would be like in a Tey 'style'... 

Rating: 6/10

If you liked this... read Tey. TEY. I don't understand why she's badly rated nowadays. Ignore that bit about 'bland'.

The Crimson Rooms by Katharine McMahon is the sort of satisfactory read that one might term a 'happily waste a leisurely afternoon and never regret it sort of book'. Set in 1924, a decade before Upson's novel, this book too deals with complications arising from the First World War, in which heroine's brother perished. Evelyn Gifford is the bread-winner of a constricted household and faces challenges both domestic and professional. Can she escape her miserable home life? Can she shake her brother's ghost? Is the child on the doorstep really her brother's son, conceived on the battlefields of France? 

And then there's her professional struggles to achieve recognition in her chosen profession as a barrister. But who will employ a lady barrister in those first few years after women were admitted to the bar in 1922? What ulterior motives lie behind the championship, professional and romantic, of Evelyn by the dashing Nicholas Thorne? And there are orphans too. What more could you want? The Crimson Rooms is a perfect blend of historical reality and wild romancing. Ideal, as I said, for a leisurely afternoon in the recliner. 

Rating: 8/10

If you liked this... I thought McMahon's writing was excellent and The Rose of Sebastopol is on my TBR as we speak...